The present invention relates in general to farm implements and more particularly to row crop cultivators wherein the weeding disks must be set as to depth and angle.
The primary purpose of disks, field cultivators and related soil-preparation implements is to cut and break up the soil in order to create a suitable seed bed prior to planting. One facet of this preparation, as well as a necessity after crops have been planted, is to destroy weeds and this is accomplished by the use of a row crop cultivator having weeding disks which are set at a penetration depth into the soil and at an angle relative to the longitudinal direction of the crop row. Normally, two opposing disks are associated with each crop row being prepared. When the row crop cultivator is configured for a multiple number of rows, such as six, eight or twelve rows, there is an associated and corresponding pair of weeding disks for each row. It is important that the depth and angle settings of each weeding disk coincide with all other weeding disks so that each crop row which is simultaneously prepared by the cultivator is uniformly prepared.
While adjustments to the depth and angle of the disks may be easily made, determination of the proper settings is quite time consuming. After the cultivator is used over a small portion of the field, the farmer must stop, get out of the cab, and check the condition of the soil which has been prepared by the cultivator. If the depth or angle of the weeding disks is not suitable, based upon the farmer's inspection of the weeds being cut and the prepared soil, then adjustments must be made to these disks and thereafter another portion of the field cultivated. After this second cultivation phase, the farmer again checks the soil and repeats this procedure until the depth and angle of the weeding disks meets with his approval. This repetitive procedure may take many hours to complete, and whatever time is required for one weeding disk must be multiplied by the total number of disks which are present as part of the cultivator. While each disk can be changed at each stopping point of the cultivator, at which time the farmer examines the soil, there is no way to correlate an acceptable setting on one weeding disk to another disk. Consequently, each weeding disk must be independently and repeatedly adjusted until the soil preparation for each row is proper and suitable to the farmer.
The present invention offers an improvement to the foregoing cultivator design by providing indicators of the depth and angle settings for each weeding disk. Uniquely, these indicators do not require any additional steps or effort. As the farmer adjusts the depth and angle of one weeding disk, the selected depth and angle are automatically indicated, and once the first weeding disk is set, all other weeding disks may be instantly set without any need for the tedious and repetitious trial and error procedure previously outlined. The time to fully set the cultivator can be reduced from one to two days to approximately two hours. Although indicators for depth and angles are known in the art, none are associated with the weeding disks of a row crop cultivator. Further, none of the indicators known to the inventor utilize the combination wherein the device for denoting the depth serves as a marker for the angle and vice versa. The prior references which the inventor is aware of and that may be relevant are the following.
______________________________________ Patent No. Patentee ______________________________________ 3,045,355 Woods 239,918 Bates 757,371 Wagner 2,430,434 Rutter 1,164,518 Herdlein Re. 19,846.sup. Ronning et al. 2,851,799 Meents et al. ______________________________________
Woods discloses a plow depth indicator which includes a slidable support shaft on which a series of depth graduations are disposed. The support shaft is connected to a wheel and plow point combination, and the depth graduations indicate the depth into the ground at which the plow point is running. The purpose of these depth graduations are only for a determination of the plow point depth and are not utilized in any other matter such as repetition of the settings for other plow points. Further, the depth is determined by the sleeve through which the support shaft slides. There is no angular adjustment indicated by the disclosure of this reference nor is there any gauge or setting for the reading of an angular adjustment of the plow point.
Bates discloses a plow design wherein the plow points are integrally disposed in combination with a pair of brace members and an upwardly extending arm, all of which are carried by a beam. The upwardly extending arm includes a plurality of graduations in order to be able to set the plows at their desired height for the work to be accomplished. Although two plows are indicated, they are for the purposes of cutting different furrows, and there is no indication that the depth settings are adjusted nor that there is any correlation between the settings for one plow and the settings for another.
Wagner discloses a disk plow wherein the individual disks may be independently adjusted by means of a linkage so as to vary their respective angularity relative to the line of direction of motion of the farm vehicle which is pulling the various disks. Part of the linkage is formed with a pointer or index and a series of graduations formed on the outer edge of one of the lever arms. These graduations merely serve to identify the orientation of the corresponding disk, and there is no indication in this reference of either variable depth adjustments nor the repetitive procedure of determining the proper angle and depth and duplicating that setting to the other disks as is accomplished by the present invention.
Rutter discloses a clamping device for tool standards, and in the disclosed embodiment, a disk is provided as a representative tool or attachment. This particular patent merely discloses a mechanical linkage means for angular adjustment of the disk, but there are not any graduations or other indicator as to the position which is ultimately selected.
Ronning discloses a combination tractor/grader wherein the scraper blade is manually adjustable by means of a somewhat complicated and remote linkage arrangement. This complicated linkage arrangement is disclosed primarily in FIG. 2 and is read in combination with FIG. 3. This linkage arrangement provides both an indication as to whether or not the scraper blade is working on the level or is horizontally disposed and graduations are provided in order to indicate the depth of cut at which the scraper blade is set to work. The differences between this design and the present invention are found in the relationship between the angle and depth indicators as well as the ease of adjustment. The desired angle and depth settings of Ronning may be arbitrarily selected by the operator of the tractor and easily changed or adjusted. The operator likely knows the proper angle and depth to be selected and thus merely sets the equipment for the desired numerical values. With the present invention, the farmer is unable to ascertain whether or not the settings are proper for the particular soil and weed conditions and must actually test the results before making adjustments. Consequently, specific angular values and depth numbers have very little correlation since they will vary with the soil conditions. Further, with the present patent, there is but a single blade and consequently there is no need nor concern as to correlation between the proper settings on one tool with those of similar tools of a ganged series. Finally, the present invention provides a novel cooperation between the angular indicator and the depth indicator which cooperation is clearly not found in the Ronning reference, and this relationship will be disclosed hereinafter.
Meents discloses a gauge for determining vertical heights and depths such as can be utilized in connection with mechanical ditch diggers and related equipment for accurately maintaining the grade of the cut. The disclosed mechanism is apparently also useful for ascertaining vertical heights of a slanting bore or hole. The device is not a direct-reading instrument, but involves a complicated mechanism and linkage internal to its housing which receives outside data which must be correlated by the mechanism and thereafter angle and depth readings taken. This particular device is unrelated to farm implements or to weeding disks, the area of art to which the present invention pertains, and there is no indication by this reference that the angle and depth indicators could be directly arranged as part of a row crop cultivator weeding disk as is provided by the present invention.
Herdlein discloses a disk cultivator arrangement wherein the individual disks are adjustable as to their angular orientation by a linkage arrangement which includes lever 49. This lever is pivoted to a split ring which is held on the upper end of the support shaft which carries the disk. As can be seen from the disclosed arrangement, there is no variation as to the depth setting nor any correlation between the indicator for the angular orientation and any possible indicator for depth.
What will be understood from the disclosure of the present invention which follows is that the support shaft for the weeding disk of a row crop cultivator is directly assembled to a degree gauge plate which is used as a marker to denote the depth at which the weeding disk is operating in the soil by means of a cooperating and adjacent depth gauge. In turn, the vertex edge of the depth gauge, which may be a piece of angle iron , serves as the pointer or indicator for reading the degree setting from the degree gauge plate. This cooperative or symbiotic relationship between the two indicators is unique over any of the references and clearly not anticipated nor rendered obvious by any reference. Further, none of the references disclose a situation wherein individual angle and depth settings of a plurality of weeding disks must be made, nor do any of the references address the present and very real problem of repetitive settings and fine-tuning of a plurality of weeding disks in order to arrive at a final setting which is suitable for the particular field and soil conditions being cultivated. Only by the present invention is there offered a means to reduce the tedious and time-consuming task of properly setting each of the weeding disks. Further, a cooperative relationship between the two types of indicators permits an easy modification to existing row crop cultivators as well as simplicity and low cost to the original equipment manufacturer. An understanding of the various differences between the present invention and the prior art and the benefits provided by the present invention will be more fully understood by reference to the following description.